All songs recorded , mixed and mastered
by ken sluiter at kingsize Sounds Labs, Chicago ILwith instrumental overdubs at Phlosswwerx,
Chicago ILPaintings by Jon LangfordThe CD is dedicated to the life
and work of Richard Cunningham

Brett Sparks of the Handsome Family
sings about the Knoxville Girl, 'we all know so well'. He picks up a stick
and beats her to death. The song is about hard work: beating, throwing
her around and at the end drowing her. The guy has no reason except that
he doesn't want to marry the girl "that he loves so well". Is this an increase
in brutality compared to that guy in Reno? Unlike that one he doesn't complain
when they lead him into prison. Flames of hell are all he can see. Too
me these mountain songs have the strangest lyrics. They are bloody, they
show no reason, violence is all around. Are these the right songs to fill
a record against death penalty? Maybe you haven't noticed, but I'm talking
about:

Jon Langford and the Pine Valley
Cosmonauts: The Executioner's Last Songs - Songs of murder, cruelty, and
mob-law done to benefit Artists against the Death Penalty for the Illinois
Death Penalty Moratorium Project. While already the first PVC record alreday
explored 'the dark and lonely world of Johnny Cash', this new one is a
much deeper exploration.

Murder is bloody violent, may it
be done by a privat person or by the state of Texas. And since the installment
of GW Bush as president death penalty has become an issue even more than
before, noticed all around the world. I can't hear the record without argueing
from my european point of view. Is this, the state run murder the core
of US justice, is it part of the picture or an expression of fundamentalist
madness Europe has overcome by now?

I must confess I was surprsed by
an email I got a while ago. I had written a review of a Steve Earle show,
where he talked about his activities against death penalty. A woman told
me that she loves Earle, sees him as a great artist, but on the other hand
was strictly opposed to his view on this question. How can one devide a
person from everything this person stands for? So maybe it's these strange
contradictions, these black holes in perception that make me wonder about
the USA. So my approach to the record was centered about the lyrics and
I have the feeling of hearing about a foreign and strange country still
occupied with medieval myths and obsessions.

A few days before I heard the record
first I had listened to the first PVC record mentioned above. Not only
in comparison to this one from 1995 I hold this to be a major step in the
development of Jon Langford's musical cosmos and recorded work. There's
no flop but several tracks stand out:

'Oh Death' is quite diferent to Stanley's
version on the 'Oh Brother'-compilation, but in no way less impressive.
It's done by Diane Izzo. Steve Earle's performance of 'Tom Dooley' builds
a link between the old mountain tune and the present: mandolin and fuzzy
guitar side by side. 'The hangman's song' by Puerto Muerto was kind of
a surprise to me, a group I had not heard before. It's a crime to ignore
them: they truly deserve deeper investigation and listening. And maybe
that's the strongest point in favor of this record: (To me) unknown artists
stand alongside with more popular names and it's not that the heavier names
deserve all the credits and the rest goes along as fillers. So for me personally
the record brought some new names along for whom I will look out for in
the future.

Jon Langford and Sally Timms' song
is the sweet 'The plans we made'. It's another Lonesome Bob tune but much
more impressive than his own 'Pardon Me'. Jonboy's rolling Welsh 'r' and
the haunted voice of Sally Timms is quite similar to Sally Timms latest
solo record and to their collaboration almost 2 years ago. I don't know
how these accents work out for US ears but I dig them more each year.

The songs are often haunting, some
are funny and most of them are accompanied by an incarnation of the Pine
Valley Cosmonauts that sounds to be the finest ever. So for all who already
thought that the Bob Wills cd was great music: let me tell you that this
is one step beyond. And the most promising thing is: there'll be a vol.
2.